1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless data transfer systems and analysis thereof, more particularly, to a motor vehicle license plate with integral wireless tracking and data dissemination device and associated portal, for interacting with same and for transmission of data for analysis at a centralized location.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terrorists, criminals, and others who are hiding from the law can travel about easily in motor vehicles as passenger given the anonymity of motor vehicles, they can often move freely with little danger of being caught. Even in cases where pulled over for a minor travel violation, they are often released without the law enforcement officer even knowing their true identity. Law enforcement current processes involve a manual system where an officer needs to gather information and uses a manual call to a dispatch center in order to either verify the information being provided, or to input information from his on-board computer in the squad car. Due to lack of time and manual process many of these checks are not performed. Additionally; new driver licenses called Enhanced Driver Licenses are being issued by states which incorporate RFID technology that has yet to be effectively harnessed by law enforcement when addressing some of the above inadequacies as it pertains to drivers and passengers.
Although not necessarily law enforcement in nature, a similar dynamic arises with parking meters and parking lots and in actions involving repossessions and vehicle towing enforcement activities, where the vehicles of violators can be overlooked or incorrect vehicles can be subject to violation or delinquency actions. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which license plate registrations, driver's license information, vehicle status and the like can be queried, accessed and verified without the time-consuming effort and error-prone processes afforded by current methods. While no known approaches exist for addressing the challenges of parking enforcement and repossession actions, several limited approaches have been proposed to address some of difficulties of verifying license plate numbers, such as U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0285743 to Weber, WIPO Pat. Pub. No. WO 2008/020771 to Roberts, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,102 to Parker Sr. and U.S. Pat. No. 8,089,340 to Cochran et al., each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, but none of these approaches can automatically assist law enforcement and non-law enforcement in verifying license plate veracity, Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), driver license/state ID validity and driver (occupant) identity, and/or insurance validity. Moreover, none of these systems provide: for accessing the new Enhanced Driver Licenses (EDLs) in a contactless fashion, and furthermore, none of the known systems provide for analysis of all such data received to be automatically processed through a secure law enforcement portal that can access secure law enforcement databases such as NCIC, NLETS and CJIS, as well as any applicable private (non-law enforcement) databases to obtain insurance verification as well as parking and/or financial databases for private enforcement actions. Additionally, no known approach exists for provision of the above in a secure way such that the relevant law enforcement data is accessible only to law enforcement, and that any private enforcement data contained therein is accessible, only by authorized personnel, such as for example, parking and/or repossession agents.
Consequently, there exists a need for new capabilities and enhancements for existing products in the electronic tracking and database transmission and analysis industry.